To Annz (& everyone else)

I am full of all the words and I thought about writing a poem but there is too much chaos in the sentences so I’ll write something longer and call it a letter.

Let me set the mood and I’ll put you across the table for two. I’m in a coffee shop—cream, brown, black, with scarlet bright chairs and lamps with flared shades on long strings from the high ceiling. The layout is open and bright. The front of the shop is all glass windows and door. They use Fellow. They also make some of the best toast I’ve had at a shop. They roast their own coffee. Anyway, I’m slouching on the long wooden bench along the back wall and you're on the black chair opposite.

I’m in State College, Pennsylvania, in Rothrock Cafe. The sky is a mass of gray and snow, and the ground is covered in white and all the trees have a filigree of lace. When I drove over the two mountains to get here from Belleville, I looked and looked and looked at all the pines and bare branches and trees with leftover leaves and all was lace and magic. I truly felt like I was driving through an aisle of tulle. I can’t even explain to you how gorgeous it was. I have some pictures, but you’d have to be in that icy beauty to fully appreciate it. One the top of one of the mountains there was nothing but white. It felt like fog but denser and full of precipitation.

Yesterday my Uncle Iddo came into the livingroom and shook everyone’s hands, even his own boys to the sound of raucous laughter, and sat down beaming. I said something about it being an Amish viewing and he said, “I like shaking all of your hands. I can smile at all of you.”

Then he said to me—“You should write a poem about this.”

And I said, “You probably want me to paint it, too.”

“Yes, yes. Paint and write.”

When I was at their house Saturday morning, I painted an old barn for a challenge prompt. He saw it and told me I should paint the view out the kitchen window, except on a much larger canvas. I was all smiles and agreement, and I would like to, but I would need tiiiiiiiiime. I think sometimes my family just looks at my stuff and thinks, There is so much stuff she should paint, and they don’t take into account the time involved.

I think maybe I’ll buy a mug from here to commemorate this occasion. There were quite a few happy moments this weekend. I got to see my aunt’s baby, her first one. Her name is Vangie. She has red hair and wee red eyebrows. She slept most of the time.

I hung out with my cousins and argued and ate apple pie and icecream. I made up with my cousin and now we’re friends again and I don’t have this awful leftover feeling in my stomach whenever I see her. There’s snow and good coffee and I think I’ll buy matcha and sit for a while with my sister and her friends.

& here’s my letter/poem. We’ll have to go out sometime. Hugs.

P.S. I bought a Miir travel mug to commemorate the occasion.